West Texas Adventure

Headed on the scenic loop after that, with the first stop being the
McDonald
Observatory.I was expecting a long
windy road to explore kind of like the road up to the
Whipple Observatory, but I
had barely gotten onto it before boom!There we were!Had a curious
Chipping Sparrow, but that was about it.

Scenes along the Scenic Loop

The loop takes you into some higher elevation

Bird-finding guides recommend stops at the picnic areas, as pullouts are few and
far between...

McDonald Observatory

Continuing on, I tried to stop as often as I could as we climbed (had a Scrub
Jay at one stop), but the book recommended going straight to the Lawrence Wood
Picnic Grounds, which had higher elevation habitat.The
Nature Conservancy has bought a bunch of land around there, and
they’ve since put in a 2.5 mile trail that I would have loved to have tried in
its entirety, but I just didn’t have time.But the little I did was great; best bird was a
thupping
Hepatic Tanager, but also picked up a bounding Acorn Woodpecker and Bushtits for
the day in here.I thought I heard
a Black-chinned Sparrow singing, but I brushed it off as according to Sibley
they aren’t supposed to be here this time of year, but according to the ABA
guides, they
are
supposed to be here!(Little did I
know…)Walking the whole of the
picnic area added Western Wood Pewee and White-breasted Nuthatch.Somewhere along here we picked up some Western Bluebirds swooping across
the road, and heard a Flicker at one stop.Coming back down into the grasslands was beautiful, with stupendous rock
outcroppings at various places, and apparently they had quite the fire at one
point.Where I could manage to find
a pullout, we added Say’s Phoebe to the list, and a few meager wildflowers
attracted a Variegated Fritillary and one of those white-banded bee flies.

The last recommended stop was another picnic area just before reaching Fort
Davis, and this was a beautiful spot with oak trees and rock outcroppings.A couple of Red Satyrs bounced around, and just before leaving a Scott’s
Oriole came dashing in!

Another picnic area

Rocky hillsides with distant Scott's Oriole

Red Satyrs liked the shady areas of the picnic grounds.

Headed back to Alpine after that, and got Bippy gassed and iced up in
preparation for the next day's adventure!

Click
here to
continue to Davis revisited and Big Bend, or
here to return to Davis Mountains
State Park